Jennlog

Seven reasons why the world should not feel sorry for the owners of bricked and/or broken modified iPhones.

1. If they didn’t like the applications provided on the iPhone they shouldn’t own an iphone. They should have bought another phone.
2. If they didn’t think the applications provided on the iPhone were worth $599/$499/$399/$299 they shouldn’t own an iPhone. They should have bought another phone.
3. If they didn’t like a two year contract with AT&T they shouldn’t own an iphone. They should have bought another phone.
4. If they wanted a portable, unlocked phone — the iPhone was never marketed as an open, portable device. They should have bought another phone.
5. If they “unlocked” their iPhone by installing “unauthorized” firmware, it is not Apple’s responsibility to reverse-engineer compatibility with this firmware in later firmware updates. They should not be surprised if their phone is now bricked due to a hung/incomplete firmware flash — this is the cost of playing “Hackerboy”
6. If they tweaked the iPhone’s OS to create a “user land” to install “third party” applications, they should not be upset when Apple releases a new OS update without the file descriptors linked to the unauthorized “user land”. They should not be surprised if their phone no longer has a “user land” — this is the cost of playing “Hackerboy”
7. Apple told everyone that the iPhone was “closed” and would only be compatible with web-based web browser-delivered applications. If they wanted non-apple native applications, they should have bought another phone

I decided not to buy the iPhone due to more than one of the above reasons. It’s bizarre to read all the stories about “Evil Apple” knowing that Apple has no responsibility to preserve “hacks” to their consumer devices. Some devices are released as “hacker toys” with the pseudo-approval of their manufacturer (the Tivo is such a device). The iPhone was never assumed to be such a device.

I will continue to dream about using my ideal portable communications device some time in the future.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 29th, 2007 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Gadgets, Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.